Freight-car door



1. wows. I

FREIGHT CAR DOOR.

APPLICATION FILED NOV- 5,1920.

1,404,622, Patented Jan. 24, 1922.

ii ill IN VE/V TO I? L/II/VES'L m/vs A TTOR/VEYS' PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES LYONS, OF OGDEN, UTAH.

FREIGHT-OAR DOOR.

Application filed November 5, 1920.

T 0 all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, JAMES Lyons, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Ogden, in the county of lVeber and State of Utah, have invented a new and Improved Freight-Car Door, of which the following is a full, clear and exactdescription.

This invention relates to improvements in freight car doors, an object of the invention being to provide an improved flexible door for boX cars.

It is a recognized fact that all box cars after a certain amount of use will sag or bulge out of shape. This causes the ordinary sliding door to jam and results in a great deal of unnecessary trouble and delay when it is desired to load or unload the car.

An object of this invention, therefore, is to provide adoor which will buckle when the car bulges and at all times conform to the shape of the side wall of the car so that it will not jam when the box car becomes old and gets out of shape.

A further object is to provide an improved track upon which the door slides and to provide a housing for the track which will effectively protect the same from dampness in inclement weather.

A still further object is to construct the door in a. simple and practical manner so that it will be strong and durable and eflicient in the uses for which it is intended, and yet will be comparatively inexpensive to manufacture.

lVith these and other objects in view the invention consists in certain novel features of construction, and combinations and arrangements of parts as will be more fully hereinafter described and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings- Figure 1 isa fragmentary view in side elevation of a freight car body with my improved door attached thereto.

Figure 2 is a broken view in transverse section on the staggered line 22 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary View in transverse section through the door illustrating the position of the door when the wall of a car has sagged out of shape.

Referring in detail to the drawings, A represents the side wall of a boX car which is provided with the usual door opening and to which my improved door is attached. The door comprises an upper and a lower section 1 and 2 respectively. The upper sec- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 24, 1922.

Serial No. 421,963.

tion 1 is provided at its lower edge with a hook-shaped hanger 3 in the form of a metal strip bent along longitudinal lines to give the desired formation. The hanger 3 engages a similar strip 4 on the upper edge of the lower door section 2. These two strips serve to hingedly suspend the lower door section from the upper one.

A horizontal track 6 is secured to the side of the car. If desired, this track may be integral with its housing which is in the form of a shelf 7 projecting at right angles from the side of the car above the track 6 and an apron 8 depending from the outer edge of the shelf. 1

A flange 9 depends from the track 6 within the housing and is accommodated by a groove 10 formed in the upper outer edge of the door section 1, as shown clearly in Figure 2. u

U-shaped hangers 11 located in and transversely of the housing are made integral with depending straps 12 located between the flange 9 on the track and the apron 8 of the housing and are bolted or otherwise secured to the upper door sections. Pins 13 are supported between the arms of the U and provide mounting for steel balls 14: which roll on the track 6. This construction' permits the door to slide with a minimum of friction.

A strip of angle iron 15, forming a flange, is secured to the lower edge of the lower door section 2 and is movable through a series of aligned guide brackets 16 secured to the outer face of the car wall, and limiting upward movement of the lower door section.

Pairs of aligned angle brackets 17 are secured to the car wall below each end of the track 6 and form stops limiting the slid-- ing movement of the door in each direction.

A staple 18 is secured to the lower corner of the section 2 and is engageable by a hasp 19 pivotally mounted on a pin 20. The pin 20 is secured to the wall of the car in any appropriate manner and is of sufficient length to permit some vertical adjustment of the hasp 19 in case sagging of the car alters the position of the staple 18.

A thin flexible metal bar 21 is pivotally mounted adjacent its center on a pin 22 secured to the lower door section. The bar is adapted to be swung on the pin so that one end is located across the face of each door section, as shown in Figure 1. Angle brackets 23 are provided on the sections 1 and 2 transversely positioned eye 24', which, when the bar is in vertical position, registers with a staple 25. A curved pin 26 is secured by l a flexible device 27 to a stud 28 in the door section 2 and may be passed through the staple and eye to lock the bar 21 in position.

"When the car is overloaded, or when it becomes old and the wall A sags or bulges, the door will accommodate itself to the bulge in the car wall, as illustrated clearly in F igure it willthus be possible to slide the door on the track regardless of the bulge in the car and the trouble and delay incidental te jammed doors, will be dispensed with. 'ihe flexible bar 21, the sliding hasp 19, the peculiar hinged connection of: the iron strips 3 and t and the novel method of suspending the door on the track all combine to make this result possible.

' invention, and hence I do not limit myself Various sli 'ht chan es might be made in C if. u the general form and arrangement of the parts described wlthout departing from the to the precise details set forth, but consider myself at liberty to make such changes and alterations as fairly fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The combination with a freight car, of a door slidable across'the outer face of the wall of the freight car, said door comprising two sections hingedly connected, a flexible bar adapted to be positioned across the outer taces ott the two sections,'means for locking the bar in position, a staple on one of the door sections, a pin spaced from the wall or" the freight, car, a hasp engageahle with the vstaple, said hasp including an eye encircling eye, and a hooked pin flexibly connected to the door and adapted to hepassed through said eye and staple to lock the bar in position.

JAMES LYONS. 

